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automotive

Hyundai and Kia enter strategic partnership with Vodafone

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Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have entered a new pan-European strategic partnership with Vodafone to provide customers with fully-connected in-car infotainment and connected car service.

The strategic partnership enables both car manufacturers to tap into Vodafone’s technical expertise, and offer connected in-car infotainment services to their European drivers.

Hyundai and Kia will use Vodafone’s IoT network to deploy their proprietary service across Europe, enabling customers to benefit from the latest in new telematics technology.

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SAIC Motor and China Mobile to create first mass-produced 5G internet vehicle

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SAIC Motor Corporation Limited has signed an agreement with China Mobile Communications Corporation to jointly explore future studies and applications of multiple areas including working together to create the first mass-produced 5G internet vehicle.

The two companies will work on areas such as a 5G communications network, internet-based smart vehicles, an intelligent transportation system (ITS), an in-vehicle entertainment system, overseas resource coordination and the industrial internet.

They will also promote the upgrading of intelligent internet-connection technologies, so as to drive the development of China’s auto industry via the 5G communications technology.

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Groupe PSA holds its third annual Booster Day

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60 partners took part in the third annual ‘Booster Day PSA‘, held at the Poissy plant in Greater Paris, which posed 12 technological challenges for the ‘Plant of the Future’.

The partners ranged from suppliers, integrators, start-ups and laboratories to schools, research institutes and public organisations, all of which have a major role to play in shaping the future plant.

The company posed 12 technological challenges and 30 demonstrators were built. Working as a consortium, the partners came up with concrete solutions to the manufacturing challenges posed by the Group.

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ZF claims broadest portfolio of hybrid and electric drive solutions

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ZF claims to now offer the broadest range of hybrid and all-electric drive solutions for almost every vehicle segment.

In 2008, ZF was the first company in Europe to volume-produce hybrid modules – a technology that reduces CO2 emissions by up to 70 percent compared to vehicles with combustion engines.

In the meantime, many manufacturers are now producing a variety of car models equipped with the 8-speed plug-in hybrid transmission (8P) that features a longitudinally-mounted drive.

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ZF developing 3D interior observation system for autonomous driving

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ZF is developing a three-dimensional Interior Observation System (IOS) capable of detecting and classifying vehicle occupants, determining their size, location and position, and whether or not they are in active control of the vehicle.

While ZF is well-known as a world leader in the production of forward facing object recognition cameras that sense the external vehicle environment, the company has also been involved in the development of interior observation cameras for more than ten years.

Due to the trend toward advanced safety and vehicle automation, interest in interior camera technology has intensified and ZF is now developing a 3D camera interior observation system supporting a broad variety of potential safety, comfort and AD applications.

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Kuka receives ‘major contract’ from US automotive company

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Kuka says it has received a “major systems engineering contract” from one of the largest US automotive manufacturers.

The industrial robot maker did not name the customer but says the order volume lies in the “high double-digit million euro range”.

The contract is for the design and installation of a highly flexible manufacturing system to produce body components for a mid-size vehicle in the sport utility car segment. [Read more…] about Kuka receives ‘major contract’ from US automotive company

Denso to open new Tokyo facility for automated driving technology

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Denso Corporation is to establish a new facility at Haneda Airport in Tokyo to develop and test automated driving technologies.

The facility, which is expected to be complete by June 2020, will feature a building and proving ground for mobility systems R&D.

This announcement follows Denso’s establishment of its Global R&D Tokyo facility in April 2018, an automated driving R&D office near Shinagawa Station in Minato City, Tokyo, to promote collaboration and open innovation with its development partners, which include automakers, universities, research institutes and startups.

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Hyundai plans solar charging system for cars

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Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have announced plans to introduce solar charging technology on selected Hyundai Motor Group vehicles.

Electricity-generating solar panels will be incorporated into the roof or the hood of vehicles, and will support internal combustion, hybrid and battery electric vehicles with additional electrical power, increasing fuel efficiency and range.

The solar charging technology is being developed to support the vehicle’s main power source, improving mileage and reducing CO2 emissions.

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ZF acquires stake in ASAP to boost autonomous driving resources

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ZF Friedrichshafen AG is taking over 35 percent of the shares of the engineering services provider ASAP Holding GmbH, located in Gaimersheim, Bavaria, Germany.

The move is in line with the company’s strategy of securing additional resources for autonomous driving and e-mobility in order to better meet the ever growing demands from customers in these areas.

“As an established development partner, ASAP Group has extensive expertise in the areas of autonomous driving, e-mobility, connected cars and vehicle software,” says Torsten Gollewski, general manager of Zukunft Ventures GmbH and head of ZF’s Advanced Development department.

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Denso shifts strategy to craft the core technologies for the future of mobility

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Denso, the world’s second largest mobility supplier, has made recent changes that represent one of the largest shifts in business strategy in its 70-year history – expanding into software-based solutions in addition to its hardware expertise.

The company says that the strategy pushes the company beyond a vehicle-centric focus in order to help create an new mobility paradigm for society.

The global auto industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century shift that will fundamentally reshape transportation.

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